posthuman classifications

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faculty of behaviouraland social sciences

pedagogyand educational science

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Posthuman classifications

Ernst D. Thoutenhoofd27 oktober 2010

Lecture first presented to linguistics and communication students at York St John University (England).To review this slideshow, go to www.slideshare.net/ernstt

New sociotechnical dynamics in the classification of objects and ideas

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Aims and content

Aim

To add ‘determinate kinds’ to Ian Hacking’s conceptualisation of scientific classification, as a distinctive contribution that technologies make to the shaping of social realities. It invites students to consider that ‘what they know’ is technically mediated, and offers a theoretical framework for analysing posthuman classifications.

Contents

background 1 two types of belief about the world | 2 deafness as hearing loss | 3 deafness as culture | 4 deafness as technology

analyse 5 Latour’s gathered objects | 6 Hacking’s kinds | 7 determinate kinds

conclusion 8 posthuman classifications

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Click to edit Master title style

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) causes some children to be unruly, fidgetty and quickly distracted in classrooms.

—Is this true, or false?

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Interlude A question:

—It is false.

ADHD is the outcome of a formal classificatory diagnosis using the DSM-IV/V. This describes various diagnostic criteria of challenging behaviour, but it does not detail their cause(s). It may however be true that ‘ADHD-children’ learn to exploit their ADHD status to get their way or reinforce challenging behaviour.

In the Netherlands 5-10% of primary-school youth are classified with ADHD.

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1 Two types of belief about the worldUnimpeachable reality is associated with the natural sciences and object categories; and with logical methods such as statistics, evidence-based practice (EBP) and randomised control trials (RCTs). It supposes that there is a ‘really real’ world that exists independent of our participation in it; explanations of it are deemed internal to scientific method.

Encoded reality is associated with the social sciences and humanities, and derives much from work in linguistics and philosophy, e.g.• knowledge is constrained by what can be stated formally | Wittgenstein• many ways of worldmaking | Goodman• constitution of reality reflects language evolution | Searle • classifications of kinds are artefacts, not self-evident | Hacking

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Interlude Contrast in scientific beliefSticking point The natural sciences The social sciences

Contingency Laws govern nature Meaning is artefact

Nominalism Structure is independent of description:facts are real

Structure is symbolic representation:facts are constructs

Explanations for the stability of scientific facts

The natural world pertains regardless of the context of discovery

explanation is empirically confirmed, therefore internal to science

All worlds are historically contingent and therefore dynamic

explanation is socially coherent, therefore partly external to science

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Suppose that deaf people’s experiences reflect the consideration of deafness under the two different types of belief about the world:

“This conflict of impulses, to ‘repair’ on the one hand, and to acknowledge diversity on the other, must be one of the deepest contradictions of the twenty-first century. Deaf people, whether they like it or not, live their lives in the middle of this contradiction.” (Padden and Humphries 2005:163)

“The problem for Deaf people is, as always, how to articulate their views of science and knowledge in a world that finds it easier not to understand them.” (ibid:179–180)

What might then be the status of technologies in these knowledge dynamics?

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2 Deafness as hearing loss/as culture

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Technologies of deafness apply right across the science-spectrum, e.g.

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4 Deafness as technology

1 neonatal screening technologies2 audiological instruments and tests3 aids for hearing4 implantation surgery5 rehabilitation and monitoring systems6 genetics and counselling techniques7 educational attainment tracking systems8 pedagogical and learning support systems9 social (incidence) statistics and classifications10 sign language corpora11 neurolinguistic techniques and instruments

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Click to edit Master title styleinterlude Sign language corpora

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The Dutch sign language NGT corpus focuses on ‘native signers’ and makes extensive use of technology. Data-collection involved elicitation techniques, e.g.

• introduction by signer• tell an event• discuss deaf issues• retell a fable story• retell a comic narrative• retell a tv sketch• narrate the content of a picture book• ‘spot the difference’ picture task

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5 Latour’s gathered objects

Explosion of space-shuttle Challenger 28 January 1986

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Latour’s gathered objects

In ‘Has critique run out of steam?’ (2004) Bruno Latour distinguishes between objects gathered from things acting as matters of fact and things acting as matters of concern.

Using the example of the shuttle accidents, Latour argues that objects dynamically combine both types of acting things. ‘Space-shuttle’ is therefore an example of a gathered object.

Latour’s conclusion is that technologies (failing or otherwise) are active participants in the world.

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In The social construction of what? (2000), science philosopher Ian Hacking uses examples from mental illness and child abuse to note that, • there is conflict between natural and social approaches;• lost in that debate are questions about how objects and ideas feature in dynamic classifications of ‘kinds’.

Hacking proposes to distinguish between indifferent and interactive kinds.

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6 Hacking’s kinds

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Indifferent kinds • unaware of being classified• constantly (unchangingly) active• e.g. a pathology of deafness

Interactive kinds • aware of being classified• dynamically interactive• e.g. deafness

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6 Indifferent and interactive kinds

However, Hacking’s analysis centres human agency and underdetermines the active participation of technological objects in social affairs, which seems substantively different in character. I therefore propose to include a third determinate kind that should be able to account for technical agency.

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interlude Interactive kinds & peopleInteractive kinds do not equal kinds of people:

“Interactive is a new concept that applies not to people but to classifications, to kinds, to the kinds that can influence what is being classified. […]The classification hyperactive did not interact with children simply because the individual children heard the word and changed accordingly. It interacted with those who were so described in institutions and practices that were predicated upon classifying children as hyperactive.”Ian Hacking 1999:103

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Determinate kinds are kinds that stabilise or ‘fix’ meanings in order to create the illusion of historical and synchronic, calculable equivalence.

Enumeration is at the heart of determinate kinds. Determinate kinds serve a sociotechnical ecology aimed at furthering scientific and political (public) ends through technical and methodical means.

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7 Determinate kinds

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Determinate kinds continued

Example Indifferent kinds Interactive kinds Determinate kinds

unaware of being classified

aware of being classified

unaware of being classified

active but constant

active and dynamic

active and dynamically constant

passive/unengaged

active/engaged active/unengaged

Deafness pathology (n)gene xRubella…

person (n)hearing impairedsign language user…

technology (n)cochlear implantlanguage test…

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The linguistic meaning of ‘gathered objects’ and ideas can therefore be approximated by considering the indifferent, interactive and determinate qualities of their classification.

While the example here focussed on deafness, other contested kinds can productively be analysed within this theoretical framework, including also many kinds that are formally established by the DSM-IV/V classification, including ADHD, autism and novelties such as hyper-sexuality.

A theory of posthuman classifications challenges linguistic thought, notably in lexicography, semantics, and sociolinguistics.

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8 Posthuman classifications

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Thank youErnst D. Thoutenhoofd

Department of pedagogy & educational scienceGroningen UniversityGrote Rozenstraat 389712 TJ Groningen

[email protected]

www.slideshare.net/ernstt

posthuman classifications

Education

social sciences pedagogy

educational science

faculty of behavioural

natural sciences

views of science

social incidence statistics

shaping of social realities

natural world